Magistrates told Mukunthan Mahadevan, the owner of Deva's nightclub in Victoria Street, he was a danger to the public and, on one occasion, he had put the lives of children at risk.

The closure came after police listed a catalogue of incidents at Deva's over the last year which included:

* The shooting of an innocent bystander who was celebrating his 21st birthday in August 2005.

* In January 2006 police found the premises open for business but with no security staff, and later that month it was discovered that the CCTV was broken.

* An under-18s party at Deva's last February which led to a major confrontation between police and more than 200 teenagers, many of whom were drunk.

* In March the bar manager was caught selling alcohol to a 15-year-old girl.

Dr Michael Fraenkel, chairman of the magistrates panel, said: "The fail-ure of the club to provide door staff and CCTV caused us great concern.

"On the night of the under-18s party there were no effective arrangements to protect children from harm.

"It is clear that the safety of the children was at risk."

This was the second bid Merseyside Police had made to have Deva's, formerly known as the Marquee, closed down.

The first attempt was refused by Liverpool city council in May, which decided to allow the nightclub to remain open as long as Mr Mahadevan brought in a new bar manager.

But Merseyside Police appealed to magistrates, who over-turned the council's decision.

Dr Fraenkel explained: "Mr Mahadevan displayed a poor understanding of his responsibilities and he admitted that when he bought the club in December 2004 he was not fullyaware of his licence conditions. "This is unacceptable." After the hearing Sergeant Paul Douglas said: "Clearly there were serious breaches of the licence.

"Applying to revoke the licence was the only suitable course of action."